The third season of the contemporary incarnation of this electrifying epic started last Friday night on the SciFi Channel (Oct 6). Those with Comcast On Demand can repeat forthcoming episodes for free the day after they air.

While some of the dialogue has in the past dipped below the radar of excellence and into the murk of juvenile cliche, the themes of this series are absolutely apocalyptic, in a way that's believable, and quite spiritual as well, which is exactly what one needs after another mind-numbing day of political conspiracy research. Excellent cinematography and music morph the serious themes well beyond the horizons of conventional television, into a timeless unveiling.

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COMMENT ON SEASON THREE PREMIERE

Oh, man, this was delicious, man! If you have on-demand cable access to the SciFi channel, you can still watch this premiere episode, which will be available on-demand, commercial free, through 11/3.

It's so great because it shows, it really shows, if the shoe was on the other foot, and we were the insurgents. It's unmistakable, the message. And they use that word over and over in the script, the "human insurgents."

And some of the humans actually got recruited by the cylons to be police, the Iraqi army if you will -- the kapos of the death camps, to be more precise. Fools and traitors, the lot, and perceived as such by the resistance (insurgents).

Which is the last thing I'll say, the issue of divided loyalty (a human experience I've noticed so often in life but never seen a program that had the balls, or even the awareness, to show it). Multiply divided loyalty, and loyalties rearranged over time; character assassination, character resurrection, the overbearing pressure of doomsday realities forging momentary bonds that otherwise would never happen. Adama sends Sharon (a cylon) in to lead a recon mission back to New Caprica, and as she's about to depart, she asks him, "How do you know you can trust me?" And Adama replies, "I don't," pause, "that's what trust is."

Weekend Edition Saturday, October 21, 2006 · Battlestar Galactica is a hit TV show on the Sci-Fi channel. But it's popular with an audience that goes beyond traditional borders of the science fiction audience. Elvis Mitchell and Andrea Seabrook discuss what makes the show so enjoyable.

I disagree with the "paranoia" theme; the show is much deeper than that. The producers do not flinch at all from the ugliest issues in life. That dead-on blood-curdling honesty, and unmistakable metaphor for the New Fascism of today, is what makes Battlestar Galactica a timeless unveiling. (The music is good too, particularly the use of ancient instruments, similar to the approach taken in Gladiator, but in this case juxtaposed against a modern future that took place long ago.)

"There must be some way out of here," said the joker to the thief,"There's too much confusion, I can't get no relief.Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth,None of them along the line know what any of it is worth."

"No reason to get excited," the thief, he kindly spoke,"There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke.But you and I, we've been through that, and this is not our fate,So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late."

All along the watchtower, princes kept the viewWhile all the women came and went, barefoot servants, too.

Outside in the distance a wildcat did growl,Two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl.